Mass Protests in Chile against Obama’s Visit

Santiago de Chile, Mar 18. -The National Teachers Association, student groups and human rights organizations are planning a massive protest Sunday to oppose a visit by Barack Obama on Monday and Tuesday.

In a communique, organizers demanded that Obama respect the emancipation and integration processes underway in Latin America.

The message also calls on Obama to accept U.S. responsibility in the coup d'état against the Salvador Allende government, a crime the Chilean left considers as a factor in the continuing impunity for human rights violations.

The communique also condemned U.S. intervention, the attacks on Libya, the continued blockade of Cuba, and the unjust imprisonment in the United States of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters: Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René Gonzales and Fernando Gonzalez.

The document demands the lifting of the U.S. blockade of Cuba and an end to policies of aggression against Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Argentina.

The communique ends by warning that Chile is not the model of democracy and freedom the White House praises, because the Mapuche and Rapanui indigenous peoples, the working class and the majority of Chileans are examples of prevailing inequality and exclusion.

"The first thing Obama has to do is apologize to the Chilean people," lawyer Eduardo Contreras said.

"The imperialism he represents is against all democratic change on our continent and against every progressive government," Contreras said. Chilean social organizations have more than enough reasons to protest," the lawyer said. (Prensa Latina)